Our Vision, Purpose and Values
St Paul’s is part of the Benefice of Oadby, Great Glen, in the Gartree Deanery of the Diocese of Leicester, within the Church of England.
The Leicester Diocese’s strapline is, ‘Shaped by God’. The Bishop has three key questions that are being asked of each parish:
- How are you growing, and enabling others to grow in the depth of their discipleship?
- How are you enabling growth in the numbers of disciples of Jesus?
- How are you serving your community, and enabling others to love and serve those around them?
There is no right answer to these questions, nor are we being told what to do. But we are being held accountable for how we are responding to these questions. What are we doing in our own local context in response to each of these three questions?
Our vision is the Kingdom of God. Jesus announced the kingdom, gave signs of the kingdom and taught us to pray for God’s kingdom to come. When thinking about our vision, we start with the teaching of Jesus about God’s kingdom.
Our Purpose statement flows from our Vision and is as follows:
We are a friendly, loving, welcoming and diverse church of all ages, cultures and backgrounds. Our desire is to serve our local community and beyond; by loving Jesus and our neighbour in words and actions, and to see lives and communities transformed by people coming to faith in Jesus Christ.
Below we break it down to help explain what we mean.
Diverse – we are part of a worldwide family of believers from all the nations, worshipping the same Lord. We want to represent the diverse community in which we are set and welcome people from all nations.
Church – we are the body of Christ. We are family. We meet together to build up and strengthen our faith. We find our common ground in our love for and need of Jesus. We all have a part to play and gifts to offer. We are both guests and hosts as sisters and brothers in Christ.
Ages – we want to be an intergenerational church. Everyone, from the youngest to the oldest is a loved, valued and respected member of our church family. All ages have something to contribute. We can learn from and support one another. Our ministry goes across all age groups.
Backgrounds – every person is made unique in the image of God and God’s love reaches to all people everywhere. We want to be a church that welcomes people regardless of their background, their class, their socio-economic standing, their health, their mental health, their gender, their status, their sexuality, their creed, their colour or any other defining factor. There is space here for everyone and no one should be excluded. We long to be a ‘messy church’ i.e. we want to be a place where people from different backgrounds naturally meet.
Cultures – we want to be an intercultural church. We recognise that cultural differences can enhance our worship and we want to build bridges and learn from one another. Each culture has something to teach the other; together we can learn and grow in our faith.
Our Values undergird all that we do, and we have identified them as follows:
Jesus-centred – Jesus is our hope, the one that we follow and the saviour who has made a difference to each of our lives. We want to place Jesus front and centre of all that we do and we long to see others encounter the life transforming love of Jesus.
Stepping out in faith – Jesus does not call us to a life of safety and security but to take up our cross and follow him. We want to be willing to take risks for the gospel, to show and share our faith with others and to trust that God is with us always.
Choosing joy – We want to choose to trust God in each and every circumstance and situation believing that God is with us and for us. Our hope comes from our faith in Jesus who will never let us down.
Valuing everybody – We believe that the good news of the love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ is for all people. We want as many as possible to come to know this love and to play their part in the life of the church.
Our logo, made up of multi coloured dots, represents us, people from all ages, backgrounds, cultures and nationalities gathering together around the cross of Christ.
At St Paul’s we seek to love one another as Christ has loved us. We want to create a culture of welcome, a safe space where God is at work among us. As a family we seek to contribute to our shared life, and we all take responsibility for one another.
We depend on the grace of God for our vision to become a reality. We commit to praying regularly and faithfully for each other, for the church and for the Kingdom.
Here is a prayer for St Paul’s, Oadby, based on our purpose statement.
Heavenly Father, You have welcomed us into your Kingdom and your heart’s desire is to draw every human being to yourself.
Make St Paul’s a church for all ages, backgrounds, cultures and nationalities where everyone can find a welcome, grow in faith, follow Jesus, and know His love.
Give us the courage to share our faith with others and to offer invitation.
We pray that by your sprit you would draw people to yourself, grow your Church in this place and build your Kingdom here, for we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen
